


In the Twilight of a New Day

by LadyDae



Series: Distortion Universe [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anisoka Week 2020, Established Relationship, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, One Word Prompts, Suitless Darth Vader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27648716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDae/pseuds/LadyDae
Summary: For too long, they’d pushed off the issue of having a bunch of Force-sensitive beings running around the galaxy with all institutions that might have trained them destroyed by Palpatine, Anakin, or, much as Ahsoka hated to admit it, her. Better to deal with this before it became an issue. While their Empire, after twelve years, was finally stable.Anisoka Week Prompt 6: Twilight
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker/Ahsoka Tano
Series: Distortion Universe [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1543696
Comments: 15
Kudos: 144
Collections: Anisoka Week 2020





	In the Twilight of a New Day

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to write another idea. And then this idea came to me in the middle of the night so I went with it. Takes place about twelve years or so after the end of How to Take an Empire. Again, nothing that's really spoiler-y. You can enjoy without reading that fic.

“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?”

Vader—Anakin. He was going by Anakin again. Ahsoka was still getting used to that because, for over twenty years, she’d gotten used to him being Vader. She was more used to him being Vader than Anakin, except for the times she was angry enough to call him by his actual government name.

V—Ahsoka rolled her eyes at herself. It wasn’t that hard— _Anakin_ didn’t say anything right away. Ahsoka let him collect his thoughts as she watched him standing in the twilight of the day on the balcony outside their room.

“We are,” he said. A bit deliberately and sagely, the decades having tempered him from the high strung arrogance of his youth some.

Ahsoka wouldn’t ask him how he knew. Powerful as even she was in the Force, Anakin would always have a connection with it that was beyond her ability to ever comprehend. And she’d come to learn to distinguish over the years when he had actually tuned into the Force for an answer or was just twisting the Force’s guidance to fit what he actually wanted.

Ahsoka responded dryly, “I was really afraid you were going to say that.”

“Even if I wasn’t, we have to do something.”

He was right about that too. For too long, they’d pushed off the issue of having a bunch of Force-sensitive beings running around the galaxy with all institutions that might have trained them destroyed by Palpatine, Anakin, or, much as Ahsoka hated to admit it, her. They’d finally crushed the last vestiges of Palpatine old supporters. The last of the inquisitors and adepts. Rogue moffs and scientists. Chased them into the unknown regions and obliterated their labs and all their experiments. But even they couldn’t be all the way sure that something wouldn’t rise again and use the untapped potential of hundreds of thousands of Force-sensitive beings against them. Better to deal with this before it became an issue. While their Empire, after twelve years, was finally stable.

Still.

“I know we do. I just don’t want to inadvertently be setting up yet another conflict that will take place in the next thousand years because a bunch of people couldn’t agree on how to use the Force and turned it into politics. Not when we finally ended the Jedi and Sith conflict.”

“We’re not going to teach them to be Jedi and Sith. Just to use the Force.”

“Historically, things have always started out that way but never ended up that way.”

Anakin joined her on the bench where she’d been watching him in the twilight.

“It’ll be fine. Luke will teach them just like we taught him and Leia and Mé,” he assured. “But we can’t keep this knowledge to ourselves anymore. Or someone might end up using it against us. Besides, we’re not going to be like the Jedi.”

“Or the Sith.”

Anakin made a sound indicating that was a no-brainer. He still preferred to exist in the shadows of the Force rather than the light—whether out of habit or choice, Ahsoka wasn’t sure. But he’d long renounced and denounced the Sith way. And he didn’t shy and resist the light side of the Force like he used to.

However, Ahsoka did know that he still held a very special disdain toward the Jedi. Nothing that could ever consume him. But enough to make sure that when they’d started talking about a new academy to teach Force-sensitive children, he’d very specifically said that they weren’t going to teach any of that “no attachments nonsense.” No “taking babies and indoctrinating them into a cult.” Just people learning to use the Force and then going to serve the galaxy as they pleased in any capacity. What he’d wished the Jedi had been. His disdain for them born partly out of a secret love for what the Order represented but ending in disappointment at what they had really been. Ahsoka knew he would _never_ admit that, though. At least not for another twenty years.

Finally, he said, “Yeah. Certainly not the Sith. But certainly not a new Jedi Order either.”

Ahsoka still wasn’t sure about this. But she’d been following Anakin Skywalker into a lot of things she hadn’t been sure about for twenty-five years now. No reason to stop now.

“Well, you haven’t given me a reason not to trust you so far, Vader.”

“In a while,” he replied and then said, “And I told you. Don’t—”

“ _Anakin_. I know. Sorry. But you can’t expect it to be that easy for me after twenty years Mr. ‘That-name-no-longer-has-any-meaning-for-me.’”

Anakin paused. “Fair.” Another pause. Then a grin. “I have an idea that will help.”

“What?”

Twenty-five years had also taught her to be wary when he got these “ideas.”

He kissed her in response, and Ahsoka allowed herself to melt into him. She would have thought after so long of being each other’s exclusive partners that this would have gotten old. So far, it hadn’t. She’d see what happened in another decade or so.

As he used his tongue to touch a place at the back of her mouth that never failed to send pleasant, hot jolts through her body before they settled in her stomach, she let out a moan of his name.

“Vader…”

To her dismay, he pulled away. He tried to look disapproving, but he was clearly having way too much fun. And it was with both a thrill of anticipation and dawning horror at the frustration he was about to put her through that she realized what his idea was.

“Now look,” he said. “We have to start all over again.”

**Author's Note:**

> I mention this in How to Take an Empire, but by the end of that story, Ahsoka's known him a lot longer as Vader than Anakin. So after our favorite sith finds himself after twenty years and decided to go back to calling himself Anakin, it's probably really jarring for her. Certainly, she respects that choice, but it's probably a real adjustment for her to get back to calling him that, all things considered.


End file.
